Nanotechnology‐Mediated Drug Delivery for the Treatment of Obesity and Its Related Comorbidities

Abstract

Obesity is a serious health issue affecting humanity on a global scale. Recognized by the American Medical Association as a chronic disease, the incidence of obesity continues to grow at an accelerating rate and obesity has become one of the major threats to human health. Excessive weight gain is tied to metabolic syndrome, which is shown to increase the risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, taxing an already overburdened healthcare system and increasing mortality worldwide. Available treatments such as bariatric surgery and pharmacotherapy are often accompanied by adverse side effects and poor patient compliance. Nanotechnology, an emerging technology with a wide range of biomedical applications, has provided an unprecedented opportunity to improve the treatment of many diseases, including obesity. This review provides an introduction to obesity and obesity‐related comorbidities. The most recent developments of nanotechnology‐based drug delivery strategies are highlighted and discussed. Additionally, challenges and consideration for the development of nanoformulations with translational potential are discussed. The overall objective of this review is to enhance the understanding of the design and development of nanomedicine for treatments of obesity and related comorbidities.

Oral ionic liquid for the treatment of diet-induced obesity

“…Several therapeutic approaches have been proposed to tackle the epidemic of obesity (6)(7)(8)(9)(10). Over the last several decades, the Food and Drug Administration has approved various weight loss drugs, including orlistat and lorcaserin (11,12).…”

Irisin ameliorates age‐associated sarcopenia and metabolic dysfunction

“…For example, GLP‐1 analogues are specifically designed to join with albumin for the improvement of half‐life and pharmacokinetic profiles using both noncovalent and covalent strategies and have been approved for clinic or under clinical trials 35,36 . Lastly, recent developments of nanotechnology‐based drug delivery strategies including hydrogels feature a prolonged therapeutic effects and low frequency of administration are also used to combating obesity 37 . For instance, Insulin loaded into hydrogel microparticles were achieved sufficient blood glucose control in fed diabetic rats and type 1 diabetic mice 38,39 .…”

“… 35 , 36 Lastly, recent developments of nanotechnology‐based drug delivery strategies including hydrogels feature a prolonged therapeutic effects and low frequency of administration are also used to combating obesity. 37 For instance, Insulin loaded into hydrogel microparticles were achieved sufficient blood glucose control in fed diabetic rats and type 1 diabetic mice. 38 , 39 Thus, future studies are warranted to enhance irisin stability using these modifications for better treatment outcomes and clinical potential.…”

Nanodelivery of Natural Antioxidants: An Anti-aging Perspective

“…These benefits include improved epithelium permeability, enhanced stability, extended halflife, increased solubility and bioavailability, improved tissue targeting as well as minimized side effects (Date et al, 2016;Kermanizadeh et al, 2018). The nanotechnology-based systems are increasingly applied now to prevent and cure aging-associated pathological conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases (Poovaiah et al, 2018;Ramanathan et al, 2018), cardiovascular diseases (Li et al, 2018;Taneja et al, 2019), obesity and type 2 diabetes (Bahadori et al, 2019;Tsou et al, 2019), and also tumors (Qiao et al, 2019).…”